Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you’re trying to decide if BASIS is right for your individual student, for middle school or for high school, it does not help at all to look at the overall class sizes and how they shrink over the years.

As has been pointed out a couple times already on this thread and countless times on other threads: (1) BASIS’s student body size is capped based on the capacity of the building; (2) BASIS does not backfill; (3) BASIS does not socially promote; and (4) BASIS is 100% lottery admission. This means students begin attending BASIS in 5th grade (almost always) without having to first demonstrate any academic background, then experience an academically rigorous program/HW time commitment, and subsequently realize the program may or may not be a good fit. If students leave, they are essentially never replaced - not because others wouldn’t want to come to BASIS, but because BASIS almost never admits off the lottery beyond 5th grade as matter of policy.

Students who remain at the school seemingly inevitably found their place academically and socially. Most parents wouldn’t try to move a happy kid to a different school. An unhappy kid (unhappy for whatever reason) is likely not going to stay (unless parents really feel like they are stuck in which case they will just make the best of it).

Academic success + great friends = likelihood student remains for high school.
Whether BASIS works out or doesn’t work out in the long run for other people is not necessarily going to tell you whether your individual student will be happy there.

Yawn. BASIS exceptionalism is never-ending on DCUM.

The building isn't a good fit for any living pre-teen or teen. High annual teacher turnover, semi-competent leadership and a large cohort of inexperienced, poorly trained, paid and supported middle school teachers isn't a good fit for any kid either. It's not uncommon for a family to enroll, hope for the best for their straight-A student only to become disillusioned over time because BASIS DC isn't all that great. No, students who remain at the school don't inevitably find their place academically and socially. What often happens is that their parents are unwilling, unable or some combination to line up a good alternative for them. It's not unusual for BASIS 9th graders to re-enroll after failing to crack Walls, or to get the fi aid a family was hoping for at privates. Avoiding going in wearing rose-colored glasses, I'm with you there.

Anonymous wrote:If you’re trying to decide if BASIS is right for your individual student, for middle school or for high school, it does not help at all to look at the overall class sizes and how they shrink over the years.

As has been pointed out a couple times already on this thread and countless times on other threads: (1) BASIS’s student body size is capped based on the capacity of the building; (2) BASIS does not backfill; (3) BASIS does not socially promote; and (4) BASIS is 100% lottery admission. This means students begin attending BASIS in 5th grade (almost always) without having to first demonstrate any academic background, then experience an academically rigorous program/HW time commitment, and subsequently realize the program may or may not be a good fit. If students leave, they are essentially never replaced - not because others wouldn’t want to come to BASIS, but because BASIS almost never admits off the lottery beyond 5th grade as matter of policy.

Students who remain at the school seemingly inevitably found their place academically and socially. Most parents wouldn’t try to move a happy kid to a different school. An unhappy kid (unhappy for whatever reason) is likely not going to stay (unless parents really feel like they are stuck in which case they will just make the best of it).

Academic success + great friends = likelihood student remains for high school.
Whether BASIS works out or doesn’t work out in the long run for other people is not necessarily going to tell you whether your individual student will be happy there.

Anonymous wrote:Your post is hard to follow. We left BASIS for a suburban school in 9th grade without telling DC public where we were going. Easily done.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some families are happy to get into a charter/feeder pattern that goes through high school, because then they feel like the HS problem is solved and they don't have to think about moving their kids again.

IME, these are not the types of families that go to BASIS. BASIS attracts striver families that are willing to jump anywhere as soon as they feel like something may be better for their kid somewhere else. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just that there seems to be a greater number of families at BASIS that think this way.

Striver families? More like families willing to march in step,do as their told, drink the KoolAid, put up and shut up. The free thinking and choosey "striver" families I know EotP move to the burbs for bona fide GT, strong sports,music, arts, Intl Baccalaureate, language immersion etc. or go private.

Anonymous wrote:Some families are happy to get into a charter/feeder pattern that goes through high school, because then they feel like the HS problem is solved and they don't have to think about moving their kids again.

IME, these are not the types of families that go to BASIS. BASIS attracts striver families that are willing to jump anywhere as soon as they feel like something may be better for their kid somewhere else. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just that there seems to be a greater number of families at BASIS that think this way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality is that Basis takes 130ish kids in 5th grade, and by 12th grade is left with 40. that means 90 kids/families are leaving over the years -- a full 70%.

That attrition is actually crazy, and is a huge outlier. There is simply no other school in DC that is losing kids like that.

I'm no fan of BASIS, but that's not quite how it works. They push early high school graduation, so part of the drop between 11th and 12th is attributable to that. Comparing attrition through 11th grade would be the better measure. Also, they don't always take 130ish kids. In the enrollment audit for fall 2016 (the cohort that's in 12th grade now) they only had 119 5th graders on Count Day.

OK... they have 60 at 11th grade. So, still a drop of more than half of the 5th graders, and still a huge outlier regarding attrition.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The reality is that Basis takes 130ish kids in 5th grade, and by 12th grade is left with 40. that means 90 kids/families are leaving over the years -- a full 70%.

That attrition is actually crazy, and is a huge outlier. There is simply no other school in DC that is losing kids like that.

I'm no fan of BASIS, but that's not quite how it works. They push early high school graduation, so part of the drop between 11th and 12th is attributable to that. Comparing attrition through 11th grade would be the better measure. Also, they don't always take 130ish kids. In the enrollment audit for fall 2016 (the cohort that's in 12th grade now) they only had 119 5th graders on Count Day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because BASIS isn't actually that great. High teacher turnover, inexperienced teachers, few sports and activities, and way too much time devoted to testing rather than learning. 5th and 6th are big shuffle years in the system, 7th and 8h aren't, and by 9th when people have other options, a lot of families have figured out that BASIS is a school they are happy to exit.

This x100, especially on the teaching quality. We are a current middle school family, where our child has gotten straight As for all the years they have been enrolled. But while there are a couple of great teachers, most have been just ok and several have been absolutely appalling. In fact, the 6th and 7th grade physics teacher just got fired after months of parent complaints and the administration acknowledging he was failing in both instruction and classroom management. The head of school had tried to tell the parents that we shouldn’t worry because he was being mentored by other teachers in the BASIS network, but whatever mentoring he was getting wasn’t doing anything. Now they have a bunch of teachers trying to cover his classes — the kids were already behind on the curriculum (which gets tested in the mid year pre comps and end of year comp exams) and this will only make it worse.

Similarly, they had to hire a 5th grade math teacher last minute last year - and they picked one who didn’t seem to have any educational experience and wasn’t a good teacher. shocking no one, this year the 6th grade class was evaluated to be behind on math (leading to a bunch of extra homework assignments as the administration apparently feels that will magically fix the problem of a year’s worth of subpar instruction).

Those are just the most egregious examples. But overall the teaching quality is not up to par, especially for a school that talks such a big game about the quality and rigor of its academics. We will not be returning next year.

Don’t forget the 6th grade math teacher last year who was repeatedly late coming back from lunch leaving the kids locked out of their classroom. The 7th grade kids are way behind in math this year too.

That said BASIS is better than our other choices. Our family is not wealthy and doesn’t have funds to move or pay for private.

My 7th grader isn't behind in math. She used Khan Academy to catch up on what was missed in 6th grade, the same way she's done since 3rd grade when the pandemic messed everything up. Unfortunately, this generation of kids needs to take learning in their own hands because teaching is messed up everywhere and kids are either years behind or have giant gaps because of the pandemic.

As a teacher I find your comments very depressing. The disrespect is coming from everywhere. Quality and experienced teachers don't want to teach bratty or violent children. Excellent teachers don't want to interact with over-demanding parents, who have no experience in education, apart from being a student, telling teachers how to do the job. So schools are left with whatever is out there. It will only get worse. Be glad BASIS has the teachers it has. If these bad teachers were the best candidates, think of all the other teachers, if there were any other candidates, BASIS didn't choose.

Anonymous wrote:The reality is that Basis takes 130ish kids in 5th grade, and by 12th grade is left with 40. that means 90 kids/families are leaving over the years -- a full 70%.

That attrition is actually crazy, and is a huge outlier. There is simply no other school in DC that is losing kids like that.